PROFILES THE NE.W YORKER x x T HERE abides in the back of my mind the picture of Bill (W. W.) Roper, football coach and politi- cian, what time he wore the white trousers in the day of that side-line coaching, now forbidden by rules which object to the roaming of agita- ted persons who are connected with the competing elevens. That old-time stalking hither and on, just a little too close to the side-lines, has long ago gone into the discard. But on that day Bill Roper was one of the best of the then perfectly legitimate stalkers. He was more than a little nervous, and certainly anything but the contact man he is now. Away back in those days he turned out a team that ran through the first half more than four hundred yards against Yale-and was beaten. This was one of the earliest attacks put on under the new rules to make anything like an impres- sive showing. The old con- troversy as to what ought to have been the procedure, had there been an objection to the Elis' reappearance on the field many minutes late for the sec- ond half-thus risking a pen- alty of forfeiture, a penalty that the Blue knew would not be enforced-will not be re- vi ved here. What will be re- vived here is the attitude of the then rather young and quite bull':'headed coach who took his ....... defeat so handsomely. He has been taking his - de- feats handsomely ever since, but has not had a great many to take. And he has been tak- ing his victories quite as hand- somely, both in foötbal1 and in politics, his two true lookouts on the world. They will tell you down in Prince- ton that sooner or later, despite his battling interests in Philadelphia, he will some day be a Princeton resident. Princeton has needed him in football, and in recent years that same institu- tion seems to have discovered that it has needed him in other ways. His personal football re11utation is any- thing but great. He was in his time, I think, just a fair end, on one of the Tiger's weakest elevense He was a little better than fair as an end when he pIcked up a loose ball and ran it many yards for a touchdown against the same Columbia eleven that x THE ROPER COMPLEX had raised so much hob with Yale. He was, however, at that time playing according to the tradition of the Princeton, smashIng end, a type that has lived through all the days of Sport Donnelly, and Doggy Trenchard, down through Howard Henry and Shad DavIs. Bill Roper marched along from player to coach, and from coach to politician. He is both of these at th x ",';' ; chest" to get under way with. He was born in Phi I a del phi a in 1881, coming from old Virginia stock. He achieved his early education in Penn Charter School. Thence he went to Princeton, and graduated in 1 902, at a period when this institution could boast of no really great football teams as it had in the past. He stepped on to the U ni versi ty of Virginia to complete his law education, without which no one in Philadelphia is at any time thoroughly equipped. He came out in 1908, and although he was admit- ted to the bar in Pennsylvania in 1910, he now makes a good share of his income in the insurance busi- ness. He is, indeed, practically retired from the law. Football, however, has held him, as has no other occupation. It has always been a blindingly strong Interest. He coached Princeton from 1906 to 1908, from 1 911 to 1 918 and since the war. He was director of athletics in Princeton in 1 91 0 and 1911. There wa a bit of hiatus, when he went to Missouri for a year's coaching in 1 909 . For the last six years he has been a member of the Philadelphia City Council-at times a rather stormy body. That he has been a sufficiently faithful member of that body I can testify myself, since he left his dearly beloved game of golf one day at Pinehurst to catch a train that would land him plump in the middle of a certain deliberation of said council. If there is any form of life in which this very versatile and still quite young man is not vitally interest- ed, I do not know what it is. I am not overstating the facts when I say that from time to time Roper has been taken as something of a joke in the football world. Similarly, I am not overstating the facts when I say that the joke is over. So far as foot- ball is concerned there are two great figures in the field today. One of them is Roper, and the other is Zuppke, and quite different they are. Roper IS of the staccato type, but without the high pitch. Go out on the Tiger field some day, specially when the team has been particularly poor. You will see Roper striding x .' .f , . .. \1,' . . (:".. :.: .:> :... .41. :';,,':-, . :\ '" -,. , \." .............,'..,. , ..< '... : '... . - ," ,.' :"; :'.,', · .. , . ^ .. oA ' · ':::' -'- : . boQ/ 'h'" 0;'J,J , 'I .... ,rY" QTJ . · · . --', 00/& P': :: . ). .,;: " . . . 'Q// '. I, ';: .,' . ..,.., . '..' ',<' ç(: > ,, . .... ." - .. , -\...;:,;;: ....."..' ,-:. , p- , _.' ,\J. ,:' ---; '. -..'" - . .... i: .. $:;S. -' .....,..... . , , . ( ., " l . ',,, . , ,',.:'.:. ,- ..,- ' " .. . , ," . . ! . -' . " .. ;' , '. " . . : . } -" : ; : '::;>';' '" . . ';, - . l.) ; .. '. , .' ;:- ri? ,,10-':1, ' JV'/ .,; -.< ,.. . '- '. ' . N ' , ," ,JC) '''''' ",,'' ! "'- ,: "!>.,'.(:.[ . J \\,; :: .;::: .' %:.' . ", \ J......) --..; ,- ;. . t"{ rft.:oJ". : ..." . ., · ....... '. íJ"'\ ..' fo ' . C.' -.. · -' . . .. ., . .;; 1. . .. ", . .. :f t:>-' j,. .>' , -. ... ':, . \ e. 1 ' ; . o · .' ',. .. " .. .... , " ,91' :':.' . , t . '?\ .. ' ,\ .J t · ..... - "';-..""0.. . " ., " ,...... , ; i , ì . .. ,; " . i.. . ....i.;:, , : i ; . , 1 ..:, William W. Roper moment. He is successful at both. It wasn't so long ago that he refused an offer of $17,000 to care for a Western eleven, in order to concen- trate his energies on his two great ef- forts. That's Bill. Crisp, successful, something of an evangelist at heart, but above all, a fighter, Bill Roper has forced his way through to a com- manding position in his two great en- dea vors. And, physically, he has the typical "stocky figure with the barrel ..